Scoring local search results based on location prominence

ABSTRACT

A system may identify a first document associated with a geographic location within a geographical area and identify a second document associated with a geographic location outside the geographical area. The system may also assign a first score to the first document based on a first scoring function and assign a second score to the second document based on a second scoring function.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

Implementations described herein relate generally to informationretrieval and, more particularly, to the scoring of local search resultsbased on location prominence.

2. Description of Related Art

The World Wide Web (“web”) contains a vast amount of information.Locating a desired portion of the information, however, can bechallenging. This problem is compounded because the amount ofinformation on the web and the number of new users inexperienced at websearching are growing rapidly.

Search engines attempt to return hyperlinks to web pages in which a useris interested. Generally, search engines base their determination of theuser's interest on search terms (called a search query) entered by theuser. The goal of the search engine is to provide links to high quality,relevant results (e.g., web pages) to the user based on the searchquery. Typically, the search engine accomplishes this by matching theterms in the search query to a corpus of pre-stored web pages. Web pagesthat contain the user's search terms are “hits” and are returned to theuser as links.

Local search engines are search engines that attempt to return businesslistings and/or relevant web pages within a specific geographical area.For a local search, a user may enter a search query and specify ageographical area near which the search query is to be performed. Thelocal search engine returns relevant results, such as listings ofbusinesses in the geographical area and/or relevant web pages pertainingto the geographical area, to the user.

When scoring the results, a local search engine may identify a locationwithin the geographical area. This identified location may be associatedwith the location of city hall, downtown, or a geographic center of thearea. The local search engine identifies all business listings and/orweb pages within a predetermined radius of the identified location. Thelocal search engine may then identify those business listings and/or webpages that match the search query. The identified business listingsand/or web pages are assigned scores according to their distance fromthe identified location and ranked based on their scores. If the userdoes not live near the identified location or is not interested inbusiness listings and/or web pages near the identified location, thesearch results are not meaningful to the user.

Other local search engines may rank business listings and/or web pagesalphabetically or alphabetically by town. Oftentimes, this type ofranking is not meaningful to the user.

SUMMARY

According to one aspect, a system may include means for identifying afirst document associated with a geographic location within an area,means for identifying a second document associated with a geographiclocation outside the area, means for assigning a first score to thefirst document based on a first scoring function, and means forassigning a second score to the second document based on a secondscoring function.

According to another aspect, a method may include receiving a searchquery, identifying a geographical area, identifying a documentassociated with a geographic location within the geographical area thatis related to the search query, and assigning a score to the documentbased on a factor unrelated to the search query and unrelated to thegeographical area.

According to yet another aspect, a system may include a memory to storeinstructions and a processor to execute the instructions to represent ageographical area by a set of postal codes allocated to the geographicalarea, determine a postal code associated with a document, determinewhether the postal code is included in the set of postal codesassociated with the geographical area, score the document based on afirst scoring function when the postal code is included in the set ofpostal codes associated with the geographical area, and score thedocument based on a second scoring function when the postal code is notincluded in the set of postal codes allocated to the geographical area.

According to a further aspect, a system may include a memory to storeinstructions and a processor to execute the instructions to represent ageographical area by a set of latitude and longitude coordinatesassociated with the geographical area, determine a latitude andlongitude coordinate associated with a document, determine whether thelatitude and longitude coordinate is included in the set of latitude andlongitude coordinates associated with the geographical area, score thedocument based on a first scoring function when the latitude andlongitude coordinate is included in the set of latitude and longitudecoordinates associated with the geographical area, and score thedocument based on a second scoring function when the latitude andlongitude coordinate is not included in the set of latitude andlongitude coordinates associated with the geographical area.

According to another aspect, a method may include assigning a score to adocument based on a combination of two or more of a score associatedwith another document that is identified as authoritative for thedocument, a total number of documents referring to a business associatedwith the document, a highest score associated with the documentsreferring to the business, a total number of documents with reviews ofthe business, or a number of information documents that mention thebusiness, and using the score to rank the document.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate an embodiment of the inventionand, together with the description, explain the invention. In thedrawings,

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a concept consistent with principles of theinvention;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary diagram of a network in which systems and methodsconsistent with the principles of the invention may be implemented;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary diagram of a client or server of FIG. 2 accordingto an implementation consistent with the principles of the invention;

FIGS. 4A and 4B are flowcharts of exemplary processing for performing alocal search according to an implementation consistent with theprinciples of the invention; and

FIGS. 5-11 are diagrams of an exemplary local search that may beperformed according to an implementation consistent with the principlesof the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description of the invention refers to theaccompanying drawings. The same reference numbers in different drawingsmay identify the same or similar elements. Also, the following detaileddescription does not limit the invention.

Overview

A local search system, consistent with the principles of the invention,may identify documents relevant to a geographical area based on theirlocation prominence. Location prominence may refer to a score generatedfor a document based on one or more factors unrelated to thegeographical area with which the document is associated, the searchesperformed by users, and/or the search queries provided by the users. Asa result, the local search system may present search results that aremore meaningful to the users.

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a concept consistent with the principles ofthe invention. Assume that a user has performed a search for pizzarestaurants in the Washington, DC area. FIG. 1A shows search resultsscored based on an existing technique. According to the existingtechnique, the search result documents are scored based on theirdistance from a particular location in Washington, DC. The letteredmarkers in FIG. 1A represent geographic locations associated with thedocuments and their scores, where marker A is scored the highest due tobeing closest to the particular location in Washington, DC.

FIG. 1B shows search results scored based on a technique consistent withthe principles of the invention. According to this technique, the searchresult documents are scored based on their location prominence insteadof, or in addition to, their distance from a particular location inWashington, DC. The lettered markers in FIG. 1B represent geographiclocations associated with the documents and their scores, where marker Ahas obtained the highest location prominence score. Location prominencemay use factors that are intended to convey the “best” documents for thegeographical area rather than documents based solely on their distancefrom a particular location within the geographical area.

A “document,” as the term is used herein, is to be broadly interpretedto include any machine-readable and machine-storable work product. Adocument may include, for example, a web site, a file, a combination offiles, one or more files with embedded links to other files, a newsgroup posting, a blog, a web advertisement, an e-mail, etc. In thecontext of local search, a common document is a business listing or aweb page. Web pages often include textual information and may includeembedded information (such as meta information, images, hyperlinks,etc.) and/or embedded instructions (such as Javascript, etc.). A “link,”as the term is used herein, is to be broadly interpreted to include anyreference to/from a document from/to another document or another part ofthe same document.

Exemplary Network Configuration

FIG. 2 is an exemplary diagram of a network 200 in which systems andmethods consistent with the principles of the invention may beimplemented. Network 200 may include multiple clients 210 connected tomultiple servers 220-240 via a network 250. Two clients 210 and threeservers 220-240 have been illustrated as connected to network 250 forsimplicity. In practice, there may be more or fewer clients and servers.Also, in some instances, a client may perform the functions of a serverand a server may perform the functions of a client.

Clients 210 may include client entities. An entity may be defined as adevice, such as a personal computer, a wireless telephone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a lap top, or another type of computation orcommunication device, a thread or process running on one of thesedevices, and/or an object executable by one of these devices. Servers220-240 may include server entities that gather, process, search, and/ormaintain documents in a manner consistent with the principles of theinvention.

In an implementation consistent with the principles of the invention,server 220 may include a local search system 225 usable by clients 210.Server 220 may crawl a corpus of documents (e.g., web documents), indexthe documents, and store information associated with the documents in arepository of documents. Server 220 may, alternatively or additionally,gather information regarding businesses, index this information, andstore it in a repository. Servers 230 and 240 may store or maintaindocuments that may be crawled or analyzed by server 220.

While servers 220-240 are shown as separate entities, it may be possiblefor one or more of servers 220-240 to perform one or more of thefunctions of another one or more of servers 220-240. For example, it maybe possible that two or more of servers 220-240 are implemented as asingle server. It may also be possible for a single one of servers220-240 to be implemented as two or more separate (and possiblydistributed) devices.

Network 250 may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network(WAN), a telephone network, such as the Public Switched TelephoneNetwork (PSTN), an intranet, the Internet, a memory device, or acombination of networks. Clients 210 and servers 220-240 may connect tonetwork 250 via wired, wireless, and/or optical connections.

Exemplary Client/Server Architecture

FIG. 3 is an exemplary diagram of a client or server entity (hereinaftercalled “client/server entity”), which may correspond to one or more ofclients 210 and/or servers 220-240, according to an implementationconsistent with the principles of the invention. The client/serverentity may include a bus 310, a processor 320, a main memory 330, a readonly memory (ROM) 340, a storage device 350, an input device 360, anoutput device 370, and a communication interface 380. Bus 310 mayinclude a path that permits communication among the elements of theclient/server entity.

Processor 320 may include a conventional processor, microprocessor, orprocessing logic that interprets and executes instructions. Main memory330 may include a random access memory (RAM) or another type of dynamicstorage device that may store information and instructions for executionby processor 320. ROM 340 may include a conventional ROM device oranother type of static storage device that may store static informationand instructions for use by processor 320. Storage device 350 mayinclude a magnetic and/or optical recording medium and its correspondingdrive.

Input device 360 may include a conventional mechanism that permits anoperator to input information to the client/server entity, such as akeyboard, a mouse, a pen, voice recognition and/or biometric mechanisms,etc. Output device 370 may include a conventional mechanism that outputsinformation to the operator, including a display, a printer, a speaker,etc. Communication interface 380 may include any transceiver-likemechanism that enables the client/server entity to communicate withother devices and/or systems. For example, communication interface 380may include mechanisms for communicating with another device or systemvia a network, such as network 250.

As will be described in detail below, the client/server entity,consistent with the principles of the invention, may perform certaindocument processing-related operations. The client/server entity mayperform these operations in response to processor 320 executing softwareinstructions contained in a computer-readable medium, such as memory330. A computer-readable medium may be defined as a physical or logicalmemory device and/or carrier wave.

The software instructions may be read into memory 330 from anothercomputer-readable medium, such as data storage device 350, or fromanother device via communication interface 380. The softwareinstructions contained in memory 330 may cause processor 320 to performprocesses that will be described later. Alternatively, hardwiredcircuitry may be used in place of or in combination with softwareinstructions to implement processes consistent with the principles ofthe invention. Thus, implementations consistent with the principles ofthe invention are not limited to any specific combination of hardwarecircuitry and software.

Exemplary Processing

FIGS. 4A and 4B are flowcharts of exemplary processing for performing alocal search according to an implementation consistent with theprinciples of the invention. In one implementation, the processing ofFIGS. 4A and 4B may be performed by one or more software and/or hardwarecomponents within server 220. In another implementation, the processingmay be performed by one or more software and/or hardware componentswithin another device or a group of devices separate from or includingserver 220.

Processing may begin with the receipt of a search query (block 410)(FIG. 4A). In one implementation, a user may use a web browserassociated with a client 210 to provide the search query. Assume thatthe search query relates to a local search. For example, the searchquery may include one or more search terms relating to a businesslisting. The search query may also optionally include informationregarding a geographical area.

A broad area may be identified as being associated with the search query(block 420). The phrase “broad area” is intended to refer, for example,to any geographic location that is specified as an incomplete postaladdress (i.e., less than a full postal address). For example, anygeographic location that is identified by less than a street name andstreet number can be considered a broad area. Accordingly, a broad areamay include a city, a zip code, a street, a city block, a state, acountry, a district, a county, a metropolitan area, a large area (e.g.,Lake Tahoe area), a combination of areas (e.g., Sunnyvale and MountainView), etc.

When the search query includes information regarding a geographicalarea, then the broad area may be identified from the search query. Forexample, if a search query includes the phrase “Mountain View,” then thebroad area may be identified as “Mountain View.” A set of “zcodes” maybe identified that correspond to the broad area. A “zcode” may refer toa postal code, such as a U.S. Postal Service zip code in the UnitedStates or something similar to a zip code outside the United States.

The set of zcodes corresponding to the broad area may include those zipcodes that have been allocated to the geographical area associated withthe broad area. For the Mountain View example above, assume that the setof zcodes includes the zip codes 94039, 94040, 94041, 94042, and 94043.To compress space, the zcode sets may be stored as a series of ranges.In the case of Mountain View, the zcode set may be stored as 94039:5,which corresponds to the zip code range of 94039 to 94043. If a zip codeis unallocated to any other broad area, then it may be added to therange of a surrounding or adjacent zcode set. For example, if the zipcode 94044 is unallocated, then it may be added to the Mountain Viewzcode set.

When the search query does not include information regarding ageographical area, then the broad area may be identified in another way.For example, when the user is accessing a map, the entire visible maparea within the map window may be considered the broad area. In oneimplementation, the user may access a web site associated with a mapprovider, such as Google maps. The user might zoom in or zoom out on themap, move the map left or right, and/or provide an identifier relatingto a geographical area of interest, as necessary, so that the broad areais within the map window. The interface provided by the map provider mayalso permit the user to enter the search query identified previously.

The latitude and longitude of the map window may define the broad area.For example, suppose that the upper corner of the map window is atlatitude 37.557800, longitude—122.276031 and the lower corner of the mapwindow is at latitude 38.557800, longitude—123.276031. The map window isthen a box of height equal to a latitude of 1 and width equal to alongitude of 1.

A search area associated with the broad area may then be identified(block 430). In one implementation, a location within the broad area maybe determined. This location may be associated with the location of cityhall, a downtown area, a geographic center, or some other locationwithin the broad area. A circle with a predetermined radius (e.g., 30miles, 45 miles, 90 miles, etc.) may effectively be drawn around thislocation. The area of this circle may constitute the search area.

Documents that fall within the search area may be identified (block440). For example, a corpus of documents may be searched to determinewhether the documents fall within the search area. Each of the documentsmay be associated with a particular postal address and/or a latitude andlongitude coordinate. A document's postal address and/or latitude andlongitude coordinate may be used to determine whether it is locatedwithin a geographical area corresponding to the search area.

A relevant set of the identified documents may be determined based onthe search query (block 450). For example, the documents that containthe term(s) of the search query in their title, content, and/or categorystring may be included in the relevant set. When the search queryincludes multiple terms, documents that contain the terms as a phrase,include all of the terms, but not necessarily together, contain lessthan all of the terms, or synonyms of the terms may be included in therelevant set.

It may then be determined for each document in the relevant set whetherthe document falls within the broad area (block 460) (FIG. 4B). Asexplained previously, each of the documents may be associated with aparticular postal address and/or a latitude and longitude coordinate.When the broad area corresponds to a set of zcodes, it may be determinedwhether the zip code of the postal address associated with the documentis included in the set of zcodes. When the document's zip code isincluded in the set of zcodes, then the document falls within the broadarea. When the broad area corresponds to the visible area of a mapwindow, it may be determined whether the latitude and longitudecoordinate associated with the document is included within the latitudeand longitude coordinates of the map window. When the document'slatitude and longitude coordinate is included within the latitude andlongitude coordinates of the map window, then the document falls withinthe broad area.

When the document does not fall within the broad area (block 460—NO),then a distance score associated with the document may be determined(block 470). In one implementation, the distance score associated with adocument may be determined based on the distance the postal addressand/or the latitude and longitude coordinate associated with thedocument is from the location within the broad area (e.g., the locationrepresenting the middle of the search area). As explained above, thislocation may be associated with the location of city hall, a downtownarea, a geographic center, or some other location within the broad area.The distance score may have a value between zero and one depending onthe distance from the location.

When the document falls within the broad area (block 460—YES), then alocation prominence score associated with the document may be determined(block 470). The location prominence score may be based on a set offactors that are unrelated to the geographical area over which the useris searching. In one implementation, the set of factors may include oneor more of the following factors: (1) a score associated with anauthoritative document; (2) the total number of documents referring to abusiness associated with the document; (3) the highest score ofdocuments referring to the business; (4) the number of documents withreviews of the business; and (5) the number of information documentsthat mention the business. In other implementations, the set of factorsmay include additional or different factors.

The score associated with an authoritative document may be used as afactor in determining the location prominence score for a document. Anauthoritative document may refer to a document that is identified asbeing authoritative for the business associated with the document forwhich the location prominence score is being determined. For example, agroup of documents may refer to a business by mentioning the name of thebusiness, the address of the business, and/or a telephone numberassociated with the business. One of the documents in the group may bemore authoritative for the business than the other documents. Forexample, a document corresponding to the home page of a restaurant maybe considered more authoritative for that restaurant than a documentcorresponding to a review of the restaurant. In one implementation, thelink-based score of the authoritative document may be used as a factorin determining the location prominence score for a document associatedwith the business.

The total number of documents referring to a business associated with adocument may be used as a factor in determining the location prominencescore for the document. As explained above, a group of documents mayrefer to a business by mentioning the name of the business, the addressof the business, and/or a telephone number associated with the business.In one implementation, the total number of these referring documents maybe used as a factor in determining the location prominence score of adocument associated with the business.

The highest score of documents referring to a business associated with adocument may be used as a factor in determining the location prominencescore for the document. As explained above, a group of documents mayrefer to a business by mentioning the name of the business, the addressof the business, and/or a telephone number associated with the business.Each of these referring documents may have an associated link-basedscore. In one implementation, the highest link-based score of thesereferring documents may be used as a factor in determining the locationprominence score of a document associated with the business.

The number of documents with reviews of a business associated with adocument may be used as a factor in determining the location prominencescore for the document. Reviews for businesses can appear in a number ofdocuments, such as newspapers, magazines, web pages, and blogs. In oneimplementation, the number of documents with reviews of a business maybe used as a factor in determining the location prominence score of adocument associated with the business.

The number of information documents that mention a business associatedwith a document may be used as a factor in determining the locationprominence score for the document. An information document may refer toa document that provides important information about a business, such asthe address, telephone number, and/or hours of operation of thebusiness, reviews and/or atmosphere of the business, whether thebusiness accepts credit cards, etc. Examples of information documentsmay include Dine.com, Citysearch, and Zagat.com. In one implementation,the total number of information documents mentioning a business may beused as a factor in determining the location prominence score of adocument associated with the business.

In one implementation, the location prominence score for a document maybe determined by combining the above-identified factors. The factors maybe combined and/or weighted in any manner. For example, the factors maybe “squashed” and linearly combined. Squashing is a function thatprevents one large signal from dominating the others. Some of thefactors may also be normalized, if necessary, to have values betweenzero and one.

Optionally, the location prominence score for a document may be combinedwith a distance score for the document, where the combined scores willalso be referred to herein as the location prominence score. Asexplained above, the distance score associated with a document may bedetermined based on the distance the postal address and/or the latitudeand longitude coordinate associated with the document is from thelocation within the broad area (e.g., the location representing themiddle of the search area). This factor may provide a better userexperience by presenting the user with documents associated withbusinesses that are closer together rather than scattered apart.

In one implementation, the location prominence score (with or withoutthe combined distance score) may be combined with a minimal value (e.g.,one). This minimal value may ensure that documents that fall within thebroad area are scored higher than documents that do not fall within thebroad area. This may also ensure that the user is provided with relevantresults in the geographical area of interest.

It may be possible to calculate the location prominence scores fordocuments in a document corpus beforehand. The location prominencescores may then be stored in a memory as metadata associated with thedocuments. In this case, determining the location prominence score for adocument may include reading the score from memory.

The documents in the relevant set may then be presented based on theirscores (block 490). For example, the documents may be sorted based ontheir scores. The sorted documents may then be presented possiblyalongside a map that identifies a location associated with at least someof these documents.

EXAMPLE

FIGS. 5-11 are diagrams of an exemplary local search that may beperformed according to an implementation consistent with the principlesof the invention. As shown in FIG. 5, a user enters a search for “pizza”in the “Washington DC” area via a local search engine interface. In thiscase, the user enters a search query and provides information regardinga geographical area. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 6, the user entersa search for “pizza” while accessing a map of the Washington, DC areavia a map provider interface. In this case, the user may first access amap of an area of interest to the user. The user may then perform asearch relating to this area of interest.

As shown in FIG. 7, a broad area may be identified as being associatedwith the search query. As described previously, the broad area may beidentified from the search query (e.g., as shown in FIG. 5) or from thecurrent map window accessed by the user (e.g., as shown in FIG. 6).

A search area associated with the broad area may then be identified. Asshown in FIG. 7, a location within the broad area may be determined(shown as an “O” in FIG. 7). A circle with a predetermined radius mayeffectively be drawn around this location. The area of this circle mayconstitute the search area.

As shown in FIG. 8, a corpus of documents may be searched to identifydocuments that fall within the search area. Some of the documentsidentified by the search may fall within the broad area and others mayfall outside the broad area.

As shown in FIG. 9, the documents within the search area may be filteredbased on the search query and documents that contain the term(s) of thesearch query in their title, content, and/or category string may beincluded in a relevant set of documents. The documents that contain theterm(s) of the search query are identified in FIG. 9 with an “X.”

As shown in FIG. 10, documents that are located within the broad areamay be scored differently from documents outside the broad area.Documents located within the broad area may be scored based on locationprominence, as described above. Documents located outside the broad areamay be scored based on distance, as also described above. The documentsmay be sorted and presented to the user in an order based on theirscores.

As shown in FIG. 11, the scored documents may be presented alongside amap window containing a map of the broad area, the search area, or aportion of the broad area and/or search area. For each document, theremay be provided the name of the corresponding business, a link toinformation associated with the business (e.g., a business listing), andpossibly other information, such as an address of the business and/or atelephone number associated with the business. It may be beneficial toprovide further information, such as business hours, a link fordirections, a link to reviews of the business, and other informationthat a user might find useful.

For at least some of the documents, a marker may be placed within themap window to show the location of the corresponding document.Optionally, if the user selects or places a cursor over one of themarkers, more detailed information regarding the associated business maybe presented.

As further shown in FIG. 11, a link 1100 may be provided to toggle onand off the location prominence feature. For example, if the userselects link 1100 when it says “Turn Off Location Prominence,” then thelocation prominence feature may be turned off—meaning that all of thedocuments in the relevant set of documents are scored based on distanceand none of them are scored based on location prominence. Alternatively,if the user selects link 1100 when it says “Turn On Location Prominence”(not shown), then the location prominence feature may be turnedon—meaning that the documents in the relevant set of documents arescored based on location prominence as described above.

In another implementation, a more detailed interface may permit a userto do more than just turn on or off the location prominence feature. Forexample, the interface may permit the user to set his own function ofvarious factors or to exclude certain factors. For example, the usermight specify that he does not want information from Zagat.com to beused in determining the location prominence score.

Conclusion

Systems and methods consistent with the principles of the invention mayidentify documents relevant to a geographical area based on theirlocation prominence instead of, or in addition to, their distance from alocation within the geographical area. As a result, the systems andmethods may present search results that are more meaningful to the usersperforming the searches.

The foregoing description of preferred embodiments of the presentinvention provides illustration and description, but is not intended tobe exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed.Modifications and variations are possible in light of the aboveteachings or may be acquired from practice of the invention.

For example, while a series of acts has been described with regard toFIGS. 4A and 4B, the order of the acts may be modified in otherimplementations consistent with the principles of the invention.Further, non-dependent acts may be performed in parallel.

Also, exemplary user interfaces have been described with respect toFIGS. 5, 6, and 11. In other implementations consistent with theprinciples of the invention, the user interfaces may include more,fewer, or different pieces of information.

Further, it has been described that a location prominence score may begenerated based on a set of factors that includes one or more of thefollowing factors: a score associated with an authoritative document,the total number of documents referring to a business associated withthe document, the highest score of documents referring to the business,the number of documents with reviews of the business, and the number ofinformation documents that mention the business. In anotherimplementation, the set of factors may include additional or differentfactors.

For example, one factor may relate to the numeric scores of the reviews(e.g., how many stars or thumbs up/down). Another factor might relate tosome function (e.g., an average) of all the scores of the reviews. Yetanother factor might relate to the type of document containing thereview (e.g., a restaurant blog, Zagat.com, Citysearch, or Michelin). Afurther factor might relate to the types of language used in the reviews(e.g., noisy, friendly, dirty, best). Another factor might be derivedfrom user logs, such as what businesses users frequently click on to getdetailed information and/or for what businesses they obtain drivingdirections. Yet another factor might relate to financial data about thebusinesses, such as the annual revenue associated with the businessand/or how many employees the business has. Another factor might relateto the number of years the business has been around or how long thebusiness has been in the various listings. Yet other factors will beapparent to one skilled in the art.

It may also be possible to use the factors to train a model usingmachine learning techniques. The model may be used, for example, todetermine the probability that a user might select a particular documentin the search results.

It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that aspects ofthe invention, as described above, may be implemented in many differentforms of software, firmware, and hardware in the implementationsillustrated in the figures. The actual software code or specializedcontrol hardware used to implement aspects consistent with theprinciples of the invention is not limiting of the invention. Thus, theoperation and behavior of the aspects were described without referenceto the specific software code—it being understood that one of ordinaryskill in the art would be able to design software and control hardwareto implement the aspects based on the description herein.

No element, act, or instruction used in the present application shouldbe construed as critical or essential to the invention unless explicitlydescribed as such. Also, as used herein, the article “a” is intended toinclude one or more items. Where only one item is intended, the term“one” or similar language is used. Further, the phrase “based on” isintended to mean “based, at least in part, on” unless explicitly statedotherwise.

1. A method, comprising: identifying a first set of documents associatedwith geographic locations within a geographical area; identifying asecond set of documents associated with geographic locations outside thegeographical area; assigning first scores to the first set of documentsbased on a first scoring function; and assigning second scores to thesecond set of documents based on a second scoring function, where thefirst and second scoring functions are different.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the first scoring function is based on a factor unrelated tothe geographical area and the second scoring function is based on afactor related to the geographical area.
 3. The method of claim 1,further comprising: identifying the geographical area.
 4. The method ofclaim 3, wherein identifying the geographical area includes: receiving asearch query that includes information regarding the geographical area,and identifying the geographical area based on the information in thesearch query.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein identifying thegeographical area further includes: representing the geographical areaby a set of postal codes associated with the geographical area.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, wherein identifying a first set of documentsassociated with geographic locations within a geographical areaincludes: determining a postal code associated with one of the documentsin the first set of documents, and determining whether the postal codeis included in the set of postal codes associated with the geographicalarea.
 7. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying the geographicalarea includes: receiving input regarding a map, and providing the mapwithin a map window, where the geographical area represents a visiblepart of the map in the map window.
 8. The method of claim 7, whereinidentifying the geographical area further includes: identifying a set oflatitude and longitude coordinates associated with the visible part ofthe map, and representing the geographical area by the set of latitudeand longitude coordinates.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein identifyinga first set of documents associated with geographic locations within ageographical area includes: determining a latitude and longitudecoordinate associated with one of the documents in the first set ofdocuments, and determining whether the latitude and longitude coordinateis included in the set of latitude and longitude coordinatesrepresenting the geographical area.
 10. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: identifying a location within the geographical area;determining a search area with a predetermined radius centered on theidentified location; and identifying a plurality of documents associatedwith geographic locations within the search area.
 11. The method ofclaim 10, further comprising: receiving a search query; and filteringthe plurality of documents based on the search query.
 12. The method ofclaim 11, wherein filtering the plurality of documents includes:identifying ones of the plurality of documents that contain a term ofthe search query in their title, content, or category string.
 13. Themethod of claim 12, wherein the identified ones of the plurality ofdocuments include the first set of documents and the second set ofdocuments.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning first scores tothe first set of documents based on a first scoring function includes:determining a score for one of the documents in the first set ofdocuments based on a score associated with another document that isidentified as authoritative for the one of the documents.
 15. The methodof claim 1, wherein assigning first scores to the first set of documentsbased on a first scoring function includes: determining a score for oneof the documents in the first set of documents based on a total numberof documents referring to a business associated with the one of thedocuments.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning first scores tothe first set of documents based on a first scoring function includes:determining a score for one of the documents in the first set ofdocuments based on a highest score associated with documents referringto a business associated with the one of the documents.
 17. The methodof claim 1, wherein assigning first scores to the first set of documentsbased on a first scoring function includes: determining a score for oneof the documents in the first set of documents based on a total numberof documents with reviews of a business associated with the one of thedocuments.
 18. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning first scores tothe first set of documents based on a first scoring function includes:determining a score for one of the documents in the first set ofdocuments based on a number of information documents that mention abusiness associated with the one of the documents.
 19. The method ofclaim 1, wherein assigning first scores to the first set of documentsbased on a first scoring function includes: determining a score for oneof the documents in the first set of documents based on a combination oftwo or more of a score associated with another document that isidentified as authoritative for the one of the documents, a total numberof documents referring to a business associated with the one of thedocuments, a highest score associated with the documents referring tothe business, a total number of documents with reviews of the business,or a number of information documents that mention the business.
 20. Themethod of claim 1, wherein assigning first scores to the first set ofdocuments based on a first scoring function includes: determining ascore for one of the documents in the first set of documents based on acombination of a factor unrelated to the geographical area and a factorrelated to the geographical area.
 21. The method of claim 1, whereinassigning first scores to the first set of documents based on a firstscoring function includes: determining a score for one of the documentsin the first set of documents based on at least one of a factor relatingto a numeric score of a review of a business associated with the one ofthe documents, a factor associated with a function of a plurality ofscores of reviews of the business, a factor relating to a type ofdocument containing a review of the business, or a factor relating to atype of language used in a review of the business.
 22. The method ofclaim 1, wherein assigning first scores to the first set of documentsbased on a first scoring function includes: determining a score for oneof the documents in the first set of documents based on a factor derivedfrom user logs relating to user interactions with the documents in thefirst set of documents.
 23. The method of claim 1, wherein assigningfirst scores to the first set of documents based on a first scoringfunction includes: determining a score for one of the documents in thefirst set of documents based on at least one of a factor relating tofinancial data associated with a business associated with the one of thedocuments, or a factor relating to a number of years the business hasbeen operational.
 24. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning secondscores to the second set of documents based on a second scoring functionincludes: determining a score for one of the documents in the second setof documents based on a distance between a first geographic locationassociated with the one of the documents and a second geographiclocation within the geographical area.
 25. The method of claim 1,further comprising: receiving an input; and scoring the first set ofdocuments based on the second scoring function in response to receivingthe input.
 26. A system, comprising: means for identifying a firstdocument associated with a geographic location within an area; means foridentifying a second document associated with a geographic locationoutside the area; means for assigning a first score to the firstdocument based on a first scoring function; and means for assigning asecond score to the second document based on a second scoring function.27. A method, comprising: receiving a search query; identifying ageographical area; identifying a document associated with a geographiclocation within the geographical area that is related to the searchquery; and assigning a score to the document based on a factor unrelatedto the search query and unrelated to the geographical area.
 28. Themethod of claim 27, wherein the search query includes informationregarding the geographical area; and wherein identifying a geographicalarea includes: identifying the geographical area based on theinformation in the search query.
 29. The method of claim 28, whereinidentifying a geographical area further includes: representing thegeographical area by a set of postal codes associated with thegeographical area.
 30. The method of claim 29, wherein identifying adocument associated with a geographic location within the geographicalarea includes: determining a postal code associated with the document,and determining whether the postal code is included in the set of postalcodes associated with the geographical area.
 31. The method of claim 27,wherein identifying a geographical area includes: receiving inputregarding a map, and providing the map within a map window, where thegeographical area represents a visible part of the map in the mapwindow.
 32. The method of claim 31, wherein identifying a geographicalarea further includes: identifying a set of latitude and longitudecoordinates associated with the visible part of the map, andrepresenting the geographical area by the set of latitude and longitudecoordinates.
 33. The method of claim 32, wherein identifying a documentassociated with a geographic location within the geographical areaincludes: determining a latitude and longitude coordinate associatedwith the document, and determining whether the latitude and longitudecoordinate is included in the set of latitude and longitude coordinatesrepresenting the geographical area.
 34. The method of claim 27, whereinassigning a score includes: determining a score for the document basedon a score associated with another document that is identified asauthoritative for the document.
 35. The method of claim 27, whereinassigning a score includes: determining a score for the document basedon a total number of documents referring to a business associated withthe document.
 36. The method of claim 27, wherein assigning a scoreincludes: determining a score for the document based on a highest scoreassociated with documents referring to a business associated with thedocument.
 37. The method of claim 27, wherein assigning a scoreincludes: determining a score for the document based on a total numberof documents with reviews of a business associated with the document.38. The method of claim 27, wherein assigning a score includes:determining a score for the document based on a number of informationdocuments that mention a business associated with the document.
 39. Themethod of claim 27, wherein assigning a score includes: determining ascore for the document based on a combination of two or more of a scoreassociated with another document that is identified as authoritative forthe document, a total number of documents referring to a businessassociated with the document, a highest score associated with thedocuments referring to the business, a total number of documents withreviews of the business, or a number of information documents thatmention the business.
 40. The method of claim 27, wherein assigning ascore includes: determining a score for the document based on acombination of the factor unrelated to the search query and unrelated tothe geographical area and a factor related to the geographical area. 41.A system, comprising: a memory to store instructions; and a processor toexecute the instructions to: represent a geographical area by a set ofpostal codes allocated to the geographical area, determine a postal codeassociated with a document, determine whether the postal code isincluded in the set of postal codes associated with the geographicalarea, score the document based on a first scoring function when thepostal code is included in the set of postal codes associated with thegeographical area, and score the document based on a second scoringfunction when the postal code is not included in the set of postal codesallocated to the geographical area.
 42. A system, comprising: a memoryto store instructions; and a processor to execute the instructions to:represent a geographical area by a set of latitude and longitudecoordinates associated with the geographical area, determine a latitudeand longitude coordinate associated with a document, determine whetherthe latitude and longitude coordinate is included in the set of latitudeand longitude coordinates associated with the geographical area, scorethe document based on a first scoring function when the latitude andlongitude coordinate is included in the set of latitude and longitudecoordinates associated with the geographical area, and score thedocument based on a second scoring function when the latitude andlongitude coordinate is not included in the set of latitude andlongitude coordinates associated with the geographical area.
 43. Amethod, comprising: assigning a score to a document based on acombination of two or more of a score associated with another documentthat is identified as authoritative for the document, a total number ofdocuments referring to a business associated with the document, ahighest score associated with the documents referring to the business, atotal number of documents with reviews of the business, or a number ofinformation documents that mention the business; and using the score torank the document.
 44. The method of claim 43, further comprising:receiving a search query relating to a local search; and presenting thedocument based on the score assigned to the document in response toreceiving the search query.
 45. A computer-readable medium that storesinstructions executable by at least one processor, comprising:instructions for assigning a score to a document based on a combinationof two or more of a score associated with another document that isidentified as authoritative for the document, a total number ofdocuments referring to a business associated with the document, ahighest score associated with the documents referring to the business, atotal number of documents with reviews of the business, a number ofinformation documents that mention the business, a numeric score of areview of the business, a function of a plurality of scores of reviewsof the business, a type of document containing a review of the business,a type of language used in a review of the business, user logs relatingto user interactions with the document, financial data associated withthe business, or a number of years that the business has beenoperational; and instructions for using the score to rank the document.